1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems that manipulate digital images. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for automatically organizing digital images using metadata which is embedded in the digital images.
2. Related Art
Digital imaging technology is rapidly improving, and the cost of digital cameras is continuing to decrease. Furthermore, digital cameras are now being embedded in many different devices, such as cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and portable MP3 players.
In addition to the improvements in digital imaging technology, online photo sharing networks and online galleries are more prevalent than ever before. With these modern technologies, it is possible to take hundreds of pictures, view them, touch them up, and annotate them before making them available on a public server.
A significant problem with non-digital photography is not being able to see what the images look like until after the film is developed. With digital imaging, you can typically view the image that has been captured immediately after the photograph is taken. In addition, memory cards let users take many more pictures than traditional film based cameras, and each additional picture incurs little or no additional cost.
The biggest burden with digital photography is to organize and annotate the digital images. A photographer typically uploads the images and has to review each one to identify attributes, such as locations, events, and people or objects associated with the images.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for organizing digital images without the problems described above.